Radar Recollections - A Bournemouth University / CHiDE / HLF project

   
 

A.P.Rowe and his Sunday Soviets - Radar for the Navy

In 1936 the Navy had already identified that nothing less than 360-degree cover would be required aboard their ships. This would involve a beamed rotational aerial system at the masthead. A working wavelength was selected at 7m and by August of 1938 H.M.S.Sheffield had been equipped with a rudimentary system. The radar was rapidly improved and by 1940 it was also clear that the need to detect enemy submarines on the surface was a new priority. The ASV Mk 2 equipment (at 1.5 m) installed by Coastal Command planes could help in detection but this was of little use out in the mid-Atlantic where the U-Boat packs were hunting for convoys. It was essential that the escort ships could carry out detection effectively and independently.


 
Tracking the last days of the Bismark
Tracking the last days of the Blismark
 
   

By the end of 1940 shipping losses in the 'Battle of the Atlantic' were mounting. Metropolitan Vickers Ltd were contracted to produce some 1.25 m sets (Type 281) and some more precise units (Type 282). They were in effect, marine versions of the CHL system.

On the 26th May 1941 the pocket battleship Bismarck was finally tracked by Coastal Command (using ASV) and HMS Sheffield and was sunk with torpedoes from HMS Dorsetshire 24 hours later. ..

 

It is considered most unlikely that the Royal Navy could have tracked and sunk the Bismarck without the aid of shipborne and airborne radar.

 
The sinking of the Bismark
The sinking of the Bismark
 
 
 
 
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